Road Trip | Mt Selwyn Snowfields

August 8, 2013

You may have heard me mention, oh merely once or twice, that I am TURNING 40 next week. Festival of Kimba has morphed into the Big Four Oh My Gods Festival of Kimba Extravaganza. Instead of a weekend away in a city hotel, as is standard practice for Festival of Kimba, we loaded up the 4WD and headed off for Boyo’s first snow experience at Mt Selwyn. As you do.

There was a vast selection of yummy things to eat, fun in the snow and quite a bit of relaxing in front of the fire. We even had some visiting kangaroos – who ate cheese! Yes, you read that correctly. Cheese-eating kangaroos!

We hit the road very early on Thursday morning, trying to beat the commuter traffic. The essentials were packed – Nanna blankets, magazines, books, sweet treats, chargers and devices, not to mention every single warm piece of clothing we possessed, including, gulp, polar fleece. Oh and Very Silly Hats. A snow essential.

Along the way, we met some fellow commuters going about their daily business. Which largely seemed to involve eating, pooing and mooing. For a city kid like Boyo, it was a magical experience. Both the Welshman and I grew up in the country, in separate countries, so it was memory lane territory for us and equally magical. We were also enthralled by the gambolling antics of baby lambs, but deeply saddened by the death and destruction so evident on the side of the road. Animal as well as human.

We headed straight for Mt Selwyn Snowfields for an hour or so of tobogganing fun and snowball magic. There was just enough snow, but to Boyo, there was an abundance of the magical white stuff! Tobogganing is pretty much Up. Down. Repeat, with some squealing and a few major stacks thrown in there too.

Our little holiday cabin, Finnish Cottage in Anglers Reach, not far from Adaminaby, boasted an amazing woodburning stove, a sauna and, wait for it, a woodfired pizza oven! We had to depart the ski fields early enough to allow at least two hours to get the pizza oven prepped for dinner. Thank all the gods, old and new, for the Welshman who not only discovered this amazing cottage but did all the driving, planning and organising, not to mention making the pizzas! Oh, and made the s’mores. What a catch he is!

Another fabulous feature of Finnish Cottage was the daily visitation by some lovely local ladies, the kangaroos. The previous residents had left out some scattered grated cheese, along with a small wheel of brie and a large chunk of cheddar, which was being eagerly devoured by the kangaroos. The strawberries that were also left were not very popular. I have to admit I had my reservations about feeding kangaroos cheese – we fed them rolled oats the following day, which they seemed to enjoy just as much. I also spent quite a bit of time picking up cigarette butts that previous (careless and rude) guests had discarded so the kangaroos didn’t eat them. People really can be vile.

Interacting with the kangaroos, and observing their fascinating hierarchal activities, was a great way to while away some time. Oh, relaxation! How lovely you are. We watched movies, read books, played games and indulged in quite a lot of sitting. Sitting and eating. Sitting and chatting. Sitting and watching. Sitting and relaxing. We were so multitalented we even managed to combine several of these activities at once. I know!

We headed back to Mt Selwyn the following morning, with much nicer fluffier snow, for another few hours of tobogganing excitement (and exhaustion) before hanging up our hats and heading inside for some nourishment when it started to snow. The rest of the afternoon was spent in Advanced Sitting mode and watching the weather close in, from our cosy fireside vantage point. How lovely!

If you’re NSW based and looking for a fun way to introduce the kids to the snow, I cannot recommend Mt Selwyn Snowfields highly enough. It’s an easy drive from Sydney, isn’t hideously expensive and is surrounded by local villages and accommodation, not to mention some pretty spectacular scenery! We were very happy with Finnish Cottage, although a heat lamp in the bathroom would be highly appreciated, just quietly. It isn’t Flashy McFlash, but it is warm and comfortable, very well equipped and the pizza oven, fire and sauna get a double thumbs up from us.

Final word on the snow leg part of our road trip goes to Boyo –“Yay! I love snow! By the way, never eat yellow snow.” Well, he is a 9 year old boy after all.

Next week, I’ll share the final part of our road trip – an overnight city break in Canberra.